Hi and welcome to the forums.
Good introduction.
As for owning gear, I am a big fan of renting in the early days when you don’t have a steady stream of gigs and/or a wide range of gigs. With rental you can always fit your offer to what the customer wants and what his budget is.
Also, be sure you are the one to arrange everything. Don’t send your customer to the rental place. You charge the same as the rental company, but you ask them to give you a kick-back/discount for getting them the order. I usually get between 10-25%. So even renting gear I makes some money.
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